It's All Political

News & Politics Podcasts >

Joe Garofoli talks current events, upcoming elections and, occasionally, sports rivalries with guests from the local, state and national political arenas. Joe is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at the Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He has previously written about the intersection of tech and politics and about the politics of the cannabis industry.

Joe Garofoli talks current events, upcoming elections and, occasionally, sports rivalries with guests from the local, state and national political arenas. Joe is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at the Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He has previously written about the intersection of tech and politics and about the politics of the cannabis industry.

Joe Garofoli talks current events, upcoming elections and, occasionally, sports rivalries with guests from the local, state and national political arenas. Joe is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at the Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He has previously written about the intersection of tech and politics and about the politics of the cannabis industry.

Episodes

Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee was recently named co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. She joined “It’s All Political” to talk about making sure people of color have a seat at the table as policymakers chart the future of marijuana in the U.S.
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We talk with Sophia Andary, co-chair of Women's March San Francisco about how Saturday’s Women’s March is still important. It’s not about Trump — even though he will be invoked by all the speakers and marchers. It’s about something more than him.
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Kamala Harris is about to announce her candidacy for president, but what has she accomplished as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and now U.S. Senator? We talk with Chronicle Washington, D.C. correspondent Tal Kopan, who just analyzed Harris’ Senate record and Chronicle editorial page editor and longtime Harris watcher John Diaz, who reviewed her new memoir, “The Truths We Hold.” And Joe, who has covered her campaigns and written about her appearance Saturday in...

West Virginia State Sen. Richard Ojeda ran for Congress in 2018 and lost. And now he's running for president. Why would a Democrat who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and couldn't win a House race do that? For one thing, he made a strong run in a House district that Trump won by nearly 50 points. For another, he might be the most progressive Dem in the field. Joe Garofoli talks to a decorated former Army major, and a major wild card in the 2020 campaign.
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The rest of the state and the country will get to know San Francisco’s former supervisor and mayor a lot better after he’s inaugurated as California’s governor, but the Bay Area’s been familiar with him for a couple of decades now. In October, then-candidate Newsom talked to Joe Garofoli about his Bay Area upbringing — not as privileged as you might think — his dyslexia and his relationship with outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown.
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Miriam Pawel, author of "The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation," joins Joe Garofoli to talk about Gov. Jerry Brown's legacy — a word he hates. Brown was the youngest, the oldest and the longest-serving governor in California history. His father, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, was also governor, and Pawel's biography of the family is a panoramic history of the state going all the way back to the Gold Rush.
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein offers a rare look at how tragedy, death and illness shaped her. In this episode from April 3, 2018, the longtime senator talks with Joe Garofoli about growing up in San Francisco and her time in local politics — including the time she lost a bet while serving as mayor and had to wear a bathing suit to a public event.
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Julian Castro, the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and mayor of San Antonio, has just announced—via his twin brother Joaquin on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert"—that he's running for president in 2020. That was already pretty clear in October when he talked to Joe Garofoli for an episode of "It's All Political."
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Rita Beamish covered the first President Bush for the Associated Press from the 1988 campaign through his years in the White House and his unsuccessful run for re-election in 1992. As the media paints a glowing picture of the 41st president, Beamish talks to Joe Garofoli about the real George Bush. And she has something surprising to say about Vice President Dan Quayle!
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Stacey Abrams may have lost her historic run to be the first African-American female governor in the U.S., but she did not concede her race to be Georgia’s governor. That is because she is starting a new effort: To fight voter suppression that plagues Georgia and many other states. We talk with her about Fair Fight Action, a new organization that wants to modernize Georgia’s voter rights laws — an effort that could have national implications.
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Nancy Pelosi is on her way to becoming Speaker of the House — but she’s not quite there yet. Thirty-two Democrats voted against her and three handed in blank ballots during Wednesday’s closed-door, secret-ballot vote. San Francisco Chronicle Washington correspondent Tal Kopan explains it to us — and whether ageism and sexism was behind Rep. Barbara Lee losing out on a leadership position.
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San Francisco Chronicle editor in chief Audrey Cooper moderates a panel at the Grand Theater in San Francisco on the midterm elections with columnist Heather Knight, columnist Phil Matier and senior political writer Joe Garofoli.
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Michael Avenatti says he will decide “in the next 60 days” whether he will run for
president. It’s a remarkable rise for the Los Angeles lawyer who zoomed into the national consciousness for his bare-knuckled representation of adult film star Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with President Trump. He’s been touring the country to gauge popular opinion on his candidacy. We caught up with Avenatti when he was in San Francisco recently for a mini-episode of “It’s All Political.” He...

The Democrats need to flip 23 Republican-held seats to retake the House. To reach that goal, they’re targeting seven GOP seats in California that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. But after visiting several of those districts in the final days of the 2018 midterms, San Francisco Chronicle political writer John “The Big Man” Wildermuth is dubious that the Democrats win more than two. After visiting the Central Valley recently, I’m feeling the same. Find out why as we’re talking California midterms...

The U.S. Senate debate in the nation’s largest state wasn't broadcast on statewide TV but it was livestreamed. San Francisco Chronicle Senior Political Writer Joe Garofoli and Editorial Page Editor John Diaz break down the first - and likely only - showdown between the two candidates.
The event, billed as a “conversation” at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco, with the nonprofit’s president doling out questions, was a historic occasion: Not since 2000 had Feinstein...

It sure looks like Julian Castro is running for president in 2020. He’s got a new memoir out and he’s spending a lot of time in Iowa. We talk about his life growing up in a working class neighborhood of San Antonio - and how he made it to Stanford and Harvard Law School. He also responds to criticism he receives for not being a fluent Spanish speaker - and whether he is tough enough to stand up to President Trump.
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Meet Tal Kopan, The San Francisco Chronicle’s new Washington, D.C., correspondent. Tal and Joe Garofoli preview what will happen if Democrats win the House. Would Nancy Pelosi become speaker? Would she get the “pound of flesh” from Republicans that left-wing Dems are demanding? If the GOP holds, would Kevin McCarthy be leader? Tal forecasts what’s next in D.C. — including an “epically dysfunctional” scenario.
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San Francisco Chronicle senior political writer Joe Garofoli interviews California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom about his childhood and time as San Francisco mayor.
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